A New Teacher
by PaulrissaRahany
Summary: Spoilers to 4x10 Promo; Just when did Regina find time to work on her sword fighting techniques? Perhaps while she was in the Enchanted Forest?


Regina remembered a lot of things. Spells, potions, the first time her father had stood up for her, the last time her mother had hugged her—she remembered things that were important and things that would mean something to her throughout her life. Sadly, one of the things that she had not remembered was the all important art of sword fighting.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent the dummy back into the hallway of her castle. Of course, Regina still remembered magic and wearing the 'Evil Queen' clothing had always made her feel more powerful than her normal clothing that were in Storybrooke. It was something about the grandeur of the costumes. The way that the collars pressed tightly against her neck and made her stand up that much straighter.

Flipping the coat tail of her jacket behind her, she grabbed the sword that had been tailored for herself many years ago. "Go," She spoke, watching as the dummy began moving towards her while swinging its own sword.

The dummy was not high technology and Regina knew that if they were still in Storybrooke, then she could have easily bought a better dummy and then created what she had wanted from that, but this would have to do now.

The first swing was always easy to stop. Though, she increased the difficulty each time until she couldn't fight off the enchanted dummy anymore. Just as she dropped the sword and began taking off the heavy jacket to reveal her shoulders in the tight leather outfit, she heard claps coming from the door way.

"Nice job, M'lady."

The voice was painfully familiar, but it didn't stop Regina from jumping and holding the thief still with her magic while her magic picked up the sword and pressed it against his neck. It was a threatening move. One that she was having to make more and more towards the thief. The more he smirked at her, the more she knew her threats were becoming less effective. "You're lucky I didn't kill you." Regina had meant her words to sound somewhat 'evil', but with the slight smirk of the thief she knew that it had come off far too nice to be effective.

"I'm quite lucky—I agree." He smirked and pushed the sword away from his neck and stepped into the room. "A sparring room? It's not what I expected from my Queen."

Regina wanted to comment on his ignorance of walking into her own personal rooms. She wanted to point out how he had just gone against her wishes, but instead, she just shrugged. "Insolence is not something I expect from the man that I'm allowing to live in my castle, but here we are—" Her sass was quite an effective tool and she watched as he turned a slight color of red before reaching to pick the sword out of the air where she still held it.

"This is nice," He commented, flipping the sword to where he could run his fingers across its edges.

"Yes, it is." She said with another flick of her wrist, sending the weapon flying back onto its shelf. Regina wasn't shocked to see the thief look at her with a deep stare. "I had it made by a swordsmith before my curse."

"You must have paid quite a few coins for it." Robin murmured, looking around the room at the rest of things that the Queen had in her home. Her home was quite large and it easily fit the people that had been traveling with them.

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're asking." Her voice was rough and mean and she felt bad for her cruel comment and especially so when she noticed Robin just chuckling at her. She didn't like the way he made her feel. The way that he tried to make her smile and the way that he had almost succeeded several times.

"Ah, but perhaps you were able to use your name to persuade them to give a excellent price on such an item?" Robin moved forward and looked at the variety of knives that she held in the room. "It's quite impressive that a Queen as powerful as you are—still works with these tools."

Regina smirked at his comment and knew that it was true. She had indeed influenced the blacksmith to give her an excellent deal due to the use of her name. Though, she was fair in the price that she had given the man. "Don't /call/ me that." Regina said immediately, glaring back at the thief. "I prefer Regina. I haven't considered myself a Queen—" What was she meant to say? She considered herself a ruler always, but Queen had the connotation of Evil Queen and that wasn't who she was. She had to fight against her nature every day to make sure that Henry—wherever he was would be proud of her. Even if he didn't know it. "I'm Regina." She murmured again, before watching the man in front of her take a moment to stare at her before nodding.

"Alright, Regina. How about I teach you some things about sword fighting?" His voice was light and airy and that constant accent made Regina wondered if he had spent time perfecting the sound of his dialect. He could continue talking and she found herself trying to focus on what exactly he was saying.

"You teach me?" She laughed and watched as the man picked up the sword that the dummy had had placed in its hand. He swung it around easily, reminding her that thieves had to be well versed in order to escape. "You are kidding, right?" With the lift of her hand, she watched as the sword swung to a stop. "I have magic. I don't have much use for swords."

Robin just grinned at Regina. His ability to ignore her blatant wish to be alone caused her to be intensely annoyed. "Yet, you have an entire room dedicated to ways to protect yourself without magic?"

When she opened her mouth indignantly, Robin thrust forward, his sword pressing forward while he pushed her back to the nearest wall. "Well, Regina, if I weren't so kind, you'd be dead right now." He murmured, his lips close to her own. "Luckily, I have a thing for dark haired women."

Regina's eyes widened when she felt herself going backwards until her back hit the stone wall. "I—how dare you." She nearly pushed him against the opposite wall until she heard his tease. "You are incorrigible. Absolutely disgusting." She muttered, slipping away from him once he dropped and relaxed his arm. Regina waited until she wasn't facing him to allow the slight smile to form on her lips. It had been so long since someone had tested her like this without fear. He treated her as an equal and the teasing was something that she was greatly enjoying, despite her hardened exterior.

Without hesitating, she reached back up to grab the sword that had formerly been in his hand. Seeing Robin take a stance, she did the same, but was shocked when he came at her just without remorse. Of course, he wasn't throwing anything hard at her, but his agility was quite shocking due to her being used to a dummy that was controlled by her own magic. Robin was erratic and she wasn't sure of which way he was going.

"One can not rely on a dummy to teach them how to perform better. Fighting is intuitive, you have to learn your opponent." He quickly switched around his blade and watched as Regina nearly moved right into his way of attacking. "You have to be three steps ahead at all times and right now you're about two behind." He was breathing heavy. While she may not have the skill that he did after years of fighting, the Queen definitely still had the strength to wield a sword. "Not to mention that you're holding it wrong," He smiled affectionately at her and Regina couldn't deny that it felt nice to have someone reprimand her. Her guards had always been too afraid to actually come after her, but he wasn't.

Watching as he put the sword down, he moved beside her to fix her grip on the weapon. "You're making it harder on yourself by holding it that way. Not to mention you're holding yourself back. You need to be flexible. You already have the strength." Leaning forward, he grinned and watched as this time she was able to more easily do the moves. "Great job, Regina." He bent down to pick up his own weapon and quickly showed her a basic move. "Good," He said watching as her feet were slightly wobbly, but overall she looked wonderful.

"I know this perhaps sounds—crazy." He smirked down at her when he feet continued to wobble on the next try. "But have you ever thought that perhaps wearing heels when you spar isn't the best idea?"

Regina stopped and immediately glared at the thief. She had gotten so used to wearing heels in Storybrooke that stepping into her heeled boots back in the Enchanted Forest hadn't seemed like a huge problem. "They're boots."

"—Yes, m'lady, but with heels. They're heels with boots and they're throwing your stabilization off." Robin said, smiling innocently towards Regina.

"Fine." Regina wasn't having his condescending tone and bent down to take off the boots. "I promise you though, that those boots are better than the rest of them." The castle's floor was cold against her bare feet, but it felt nice too. Staring at Robin, she lifted the sword up towards him and did the move again. "Better, sir?" She said, smirking at him.

"Much better, you don't look like you may fall down." He did a counter move and was impressed to see that Regina already blocked the move. "Where did you learn the basic of fighting? You don't seem like someone to pick it up from actual fighting."

Regina was weary of talking to him while she was trying to fight, but as she got more comfortable with the simple moves, she felt herself open up to the thief a bit more. "My knights were always protective of me. A few thought it would be good for me to learn hand to hand combat. They taught me the basics." Lunging forward at just the right moment, she grinned when she watched as he was thrown off a bit by her forward motion. "I didn't have the need for it in Storybrooke, but right now—" Regina got sloppy and watched as Robin was able to lunge forward at her. "Now I'm trying to forget and I find that this is a very good way of doing so." She returned the gesture, but was shocked to find that the thief didn't move in time and her sword sliced through his shirt, the hint of blood on his t-shirt was immediately alarming.

"Robin!" She cried out throwing down the sword and immediately rushing over to the thief. He was definitely wincing, but he allowed her to move closer. "I can't believe I did that." She helped him get the shirt off his arm. "I'm never so clumsy."

"I'm sure it's just because I took the heels away from you," Robin said immediately, his humor never stopping, despite the cut on his arm.

Though, it was obvious the Queen was not having it. Taking his long sleeve t-shirt off his body, Regina left him in a sleeveless shirt while guiding them to the floor to sit down. In seconds, Regina had raised her hand to quickly heal the wound.

"Next time you'd do well to remember that a Queen is always at her best with heels." She murmured, watching as her magic healed his wound. Her other hand trailed down his arm, only stopping when she saw the dark ink of his tried to hide her shock when she noticed the tattoo.

The man with the lion tattoo was surely not a thief.

"M'lady, are you alright?" He asked, his other hand coming up to brush against the already healed skin of his arm.

"Yes!" She said almost instantly, glancing up at his face. "I'm fine, but I think our lesson is over for the day." She admitted, getting back onto her feet and reaching for his hands to help him back up.

"For the day?" He asked, chuckling as he reached for his shirt that was now stained with blood.

"Well, I'm still not convinced that I fight better without my heels on." She said, her voice almost playful. She was nervous and scared that the man she and Tinker Bell had talked about all those years was in front of her right now, but in some sort of way it gave her hope. "But you got yourself hurt so it's best to wait until perhaps tomorrow to continue our lesson."

"Yes, your majesty. I purposefully got myself hurt," He smirked at her and stood up beside her. "But if you'd like to continue this tomorrow, I will be here tomorrow."

Straightening her top, Regina nodded and bent down to pick up both of the swords. "Then I'll be here."

Grinning, in a look that could only be described as boyish, Robin nodded. "Tomorrow it is, then m'lady."


End file.
